.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
The present work was a gift from Emily Mason to Wolf Kahn.
Charles Demuth was endlessly fascinated by the sensual, natural beauty to be found within the simplicity of a flower. Inspired by the flora in the local gardens and markets of his Lancaster, Pennsylvania, community, Demuth’s still-life paintings such as Cyclamen represent the most immediate and intimate segment of his career. His watercolors, as Emily Farnham describes, “are indeed remarkable in the way in which they demonstrate the artist's capacity to extract the essential character of a flower.” (Charles Demuth: His Life, Psychology and Works, vol. i, Ph.D. dissertation, Ohio State University, 1959, p. 295)
As in many of his works from this period, in Cyclamen the artist creates an oval composition, with the twisting leaves and stems creating a sense of verticality. Each blossom is highlighted by a concentrated center of red, with each flower positioned so as to be unique among the bouquet. Using a wash-and-blotter technique, the leaves have been given texture that allows them to almost shimmer with light, adding a more natural element to their clean-lined forms. Yet, through his presentation of the cyclamen against a blank background, Demuth decontextualizes the flowers from their natural environment. As James E. Breslin writes, “One striking feature of Demuth’s watercolors is the dramatic use he makes of the white paper…these objects are abstracted, lifted from any context, for heightened aesthetic contemplation; the space they dwell in is an artistic space.” (“William Carlos Williams and Charles Demuth: Cross Fertilization in the Arts,” Journal of Modern Literature, vol. 6, no. 2, April 1977, p. 251)
Charles Demuth was endlessly fascinated by the sensual, natural beauty to be found within the simplicity of a flower. Inspired by the flora in the local gardens and markets of his Lancaster, Pennsylvania, community, Demuth’s still-life paintings such as Cyclamen represent the most immediate and intimate segment of his career. His watercolors, as Emily Farnham describes, “are indeed remarkable in the way in which they demonstrate the artist's capacity to extract the essential character of a flower.” (Charles Demuth: His Life, Psychology and Works, vol. i, Ph.D. dissertation, Ohio State University, 1959, p. 295)
As in many of his works from this period, in Cyclamen the artist creates an oval composition, with the twisting leaves and stems creating a sense of verticality. Each blossom is highlighted by a concentrated center of red, with each flower positioned so as to be unique among the bouquet. Using a wash-and-blotter technique, the leaves have been given texture that allows them to almost shimmer with light, adding a more natural element to their clean-lined forms. Yet, through his presentation of the cyclamen against a blank background, Demuth decontextualizes the flowers from their natural environment. As James E. Breslin writes, “One striking feature of Demuth’s watercolors is the dramatic use he makes of the white paper…these objects are abstracted, lifted from any context, for heightened aesthetic contemplation; the space they dwell in is an artistic space.” (“William Carlos Williams and Charles Demuth: Cross Fertilization in the Arts,” Journal of Modern Literature, vol. 6, no. 2, April 1977, p. 251)